About FoodMayhem

In the chaotic kitchen of a recipe developer, you get a food blog called FoodMayhem.

I'm Jessica, an Asian-American, born and raised in NYC, and that's Lon, my Jewish, white husband. While professionally trained as a French culinary- and pastry chef, many of FoodMayhem recipes are my attempt to preserve and share authentic Chinese and Taiwanese recipes learned from my mom. We don't eat Chinese food every day, so you'll get a little bit of anything we find delicious enough to share: from our Eastern European side; recipes and techniques learned from my restaurant days; restaurant reviews, food travel tips; and a few other juicy bits along the way. Welcome to FoodMayhem!

Recipes that include turbinado

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Rugelach, not to be confused with arugula (a lovely peppery green), is a traditional Jewish pastry. To pronounce correctly, you should sound like you’re coughing up phlegm at the end.

Rugelach is the perfect thing to make this time of year. First of all, you can use it for Hannukah or Christmas because everyone loves it. You can make a huge batch and bring to both houses like us, one Jewish (sorta), one not. My Chinese family got addicted to rugelach from eating the giant boxes from Costco, which are dangerously good. Secondly, in December, fresh fruits are not very good in New York, so jams, preserves, and dried fruits are what’s in season.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Do you remember when Carla won all those Top Chef rounds with a simple galette? I thought that was a bit ridiculous considering how easy a galette is to make.

There is so much great fruit around now that I was thinking about making a Peach and Cherry Galette. The next day, I saw the Peach and Raspberry Galette on Dr. Food, who had adapted hers from Use Real Butter, making it this week’s double Weekend Shout Out!

Jennifer, at Use Real Butter, has insanely good photos on her site, food porn heaven! Erin at Dr. Food took the sugar and butter down just a bit, which I thought wise, especially because I was going to use cherries which are not as tart as raspberries. The crust they used interested me because it was different from my go-to recipe. I was bit nervous when it looked pretty wet but the result was so incredibly delicious, flaky with a little pull. I will find it hard not to make this every day. So thank girls for giving me the basis for this Peach and Cherry Galette.

Note: Using good ripe fruit is essential!

Peach and Cherry Galette
~makes two 8-inch galettes

3 tablespoons sour cream

1/2 cup ice water

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoons salt

7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

filling

2 cups sliced ripe peaches (peeled and pitted)

1 cup cherry halves (pitted)

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter

water for brushing

1/2 tablespoon turbinado sugar

Instructions –

1. To make the dough, mix sour cream with water and set aside. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut in butter until it looks like coarse sand.

2. Add sour cream water mixture 1 tablespoon at a time and toss with a fork. Only add what you need to get the dough to come together. (Doing this on a humid day, I found that I did not need all the liquid and it was still a bit wet compared to most doughs I am used to.)

3. Bring the dough together and separate into two balls. Flatten into discs and save each in plastic wrap. Chill for 3 hours or up to 2 days.

5. Roll out dough to 11″ circles, using a generous amount of flour to prevent sticking. Let dough hang on rolling pin to transfer to parchment covered baking sheets. Split fruit among the two pieces, arranging nicely in the center, leaving a 3″ rim.

6. Sprinkle 1/2 tablespoon of sugar on each (mainly over fruit part). Dot both with thin slices of butter (1/2 tablespoon each).

7. Folding the dough is easy. Just pick up any side and fold over. Take the low corner it made and fold that towards the center. Now a new lower corner is created. Fold that towards the center and repeat until you’ve gone all the way around.

8. Brush dough lightly with water and sprinkle turbinado sugar over crust (1/4 tablespoon over each). Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until pastry is golden and fruit is bubbling. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before serving. Best eaten as soon as possible.